World of Warcraft Movie Update: Director Signed and Projected 2015 Release

For years, fans have been wondering what had happened to the planned movie Warcraft--many wondered if it was still being produced. Today, we get some updates! Duncan Jones has signed on with Legendary Pictures as director, and the film is tentatively planned to be released in 2015.

Nethaera

We are pleased to announce that Duncan Jones, director of critically-acclaimed films Source Code and Moon, has signed on with Legendary Pictures to direct the upcoming live-action film based on the Warcraft universe. Click here for more info.

Borys.Kit

Duncan Jones is making the jump to big-budget tentpole movies, signing on to direct Warcraft, Legendary Pictures’ live-action adaptation of Blizzard Entertainment’s video game universe.

Thomas Tull and Jon Jashni are producing for Legendary along with Blizzard and Atlas Entertainment’s Charles Roven and Alex Gartner.

Taking an almost kitchen-sink approach to fantasy, Warcraft, which has grown to be one of the most popular multiplayer online role-playing games out there, is part fantasy, part science fiction and — depending on the game you’re playing — includes elements such as dragons and orcs, zombies and werewolves, and aliens and spaceships.

Legendary is keeping its script, written by Charles Leavitt, under wraps. The Warner Bros.-based production and finance outfit is eyeing a fall 2013 start and a 2015 release.

Warcraft is a big jump up in terms of scope and scale for Jones, the filmmaker son of David Bowie known for his thoughtful sci-fi work.

Jones (CAA, Independent Talent Group, Bloom Hergott) made his feature debut writing and directing 2009's Moon, the well-regarded low-key indie sci-fi drama that starred Sam Rockwell and cost around $1 million to make. He followed that up with Source Code, Summit’s 2011 time travel thriller that starred Jake Gyllenhaal and cost around $35 million to make. Warcraft is expected to have a budget north of $100 million.

Roven most recently produced The Dark Knight Rises and is a producer on Man of Steel, both of which involved Legendary. Atlas is in pre-production on David O. Russell’s follow-up to Silver Linings Playbook, an untitled project that will star Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner. Production begins this March.

Comments

Comment by Grishie

Great, I hope they'll put some effort in the film now! Oh, and that it will not be PG-13 -_-

Comment by combas

on 2013-01-31T11:22:49-06:00

Gonna be 4 movies long...

Comment by Twizelbang

on 2013-01-31T11:24:14-06:00

CGI films.. woop woop. love them.

Best one i have seen so far is Final Fantasy - The Spirits Within. Rather old, but even today it blows most CGI out of the water... I hope Blizzard can pull it off, good story line, that follows World of Warcraft content / lore & has decent CGI effects.

Happy days :)

Comment by Brainsnack

on 2013-01-31T13:02:22-06:00

The Rock as Thrall and Vin Diesel as everybody else.

Profit.

Comment by darksunDS

on 2013-01-31T13:03:00-06:00

It might be worth mentioning however that a good portion of video-game based movies have been produced by none other than the "critically acclaimed" Uwe Boll.

On a brighter note, i have a feeling Blizzard won't leave this go down as a failure. With their main (at least at this point) IP being what it is and with a production cost of presumably $100 million i have a feeling they will sink they teeth into this really hard. Also worth mentioning that just because it is a live action, doesn't mean a large portion of it won't be CG animated.

Overall based on the blizzard philosophy so far, i'm expecting a 8/10 movie. They'll make sure its good, but they'll likely flunk certain aspects of it which will lower the note for huge WoW and Warcraft fans in general. For the average Joe this game might be incredible and could end up increasing Blizzard's wallet even further.

Comment by rayquaza11

on 2013-01-31T13:17:53-06:00

Videogame movies have ALWAYS sucked.

Silent Hill, Resident Evil

It might be worth mentioning however that a good portion of video-game based movies have been produced by none other than the "critically acclaimed" Uwe Boll.

True fact: Uwe Boll volunteered to direct the Warcraft movie and they said "not you... especially not you".

Comment by Dogimed

on 2013-01-31T13:47:17-06:00

Videogame movies have ALWAYS sucked.

Silent Hill, Resident Evil

Like to add some titles to broaden your knowledge, I would, young padawan, yes, mmmm.

Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Max Payne and Prince of Persia could be PoS, but they were somewhat (or) highly profitable. Whether you believe it or not, there are many people who enjoyed them.

Comment by lonewolfe31705

on 2013-01-31T14:04:42-06:00

The Rock as Thrall and Vin Diesel as everybody else.

Profit.

I hope you step on a little green army man for that comment. If they get either of those 2 people, that take the movie from "OMG cant wait to see it!" to "Christ really? They did that stupid crap?" in most players minds that I know.

Comment by Jadaya

on 2013-01-31T15:36:00-06:00

Wayta kill the Franchise boys! All-tho to be honest after Cataclysm, making the game a PG13 again and all the shameless pandering to demographics as-well as the inevitable downward slope of game subs this this has seen its peek (Wrath - deal with it). And if a movie is what you want to do to bow out gracefully i can respect that. But pls before you let this go the way of Diablo2 (which atm has more players than D3 btw, gg blizz) at least let us kill Sageras before you do. Video game movies - do some research on the phenomenon.

Comment by Fuzzywiggles

on 2013-01-31T15:42:10-06:00

The person who said all video game movies are terrible was in fact correct. Even though Mortal Kombat was terrible I still enjoy watching it from time to time. A warcraft movie though? The story and lore of warcraft is really not that interesting. However i would laugh if they thought up a script involving something that happened in wow. And when the actors find out Deathwing is attacking they all have to grind daily quests to gear up and go slay him.

Comment by Eccentrica

on 2013-01-31T16:11:27-06:00

And when the actors find out Deathwing is attacking they all have to grind daily quests to gear up and go slay him.

You made me choke on my tea. Well done sir or madam as the case may be.

Comment by Wirxaw

on 2013-01-31T17:35:25-06:00

Live-action isn't a problem. Actors, scriptwriters and director - that's the problem. Honestly, after what I've seen in Promotheos, where CGI was supposed to beat everything, and where Guy Pearce was grimed to the point of retardation - I understood two things.

CGI is bad. Period. Whenever the film relies on heavy CGI, it's a waste. Prove me wrong.Nowadays just adding fake nose and ears and painting you green isn't the pinnacle of effect technology. After the terror of Avatar, I believe even Mini-me actor can play Hulk.

That said, as long as director does have a clue about what audience wants, hopes for and expects; scriptwriter keeps in touch with Metzen and knows WoW universe on at least 5 year veteran player basis; and actors know how to express emotions and action with and without help of modern technology - the film is guaranteed to be successful(well, like any film with similar criteria of quality).At minimum, as someone said, it's a WoW movie. A F*CKING WoW movie. Tales of the Past 3, pure WoW noncanon machinima, is still among my top list of films.I know, recently many fans have experienced great horror and mental trauma after watching Promotheos. And many dislike what Blizzard was doing to WoW(and current Diablo 3 disaster), so yes, a parallel between senile Ridley Scott and aging Blizzard can be made.

But we are fans, we are believers, so let's hope that if Blizz can make MoP, they can make a good movie too, even after all these years and the burden of CGI.

Awesome!

Make sure to make a Diablo 3 movie as well!

No. NO. NO-NO-NO! This hollow shell of a game does NOT deserve a movie. Maybe something about Diablo in general, but if you like D3 - go watch cinematics, nuff said.

Edit:It's confusing to read the comments. Has IQ dropped even more in last years? When Warcraft movie was first announced, like post says - YEARS ago, all people could do is squeal and purr with dreams of what it could be.Now that the news are two expansions later, idiots keep saying Casualclysm and Mists of Pandailya, but what has changed?It is BLIZZARD. It is WARCRAFT movie. Be effing happy, for Thrall's sake.And why so much anti live action comments? Is this the generation of 2000+? Why so many FF comments? I $%^& on FF. What damn should I give about a movie, where there is NOTHING to watch? It's like you compare a good book to a comic. Oh no, the book - you have to READ IT. To understand it. To think YOURSELF. Jesus, what a mess. A comic - yay, you watch the smexy pictures, you read chat bubbles and see happily what the hell is going on!Like I said above, personally, if this movie would've otherwise be full CGI-inteded, I would be sceptical. Still, for everything there are exceptions, as both CGI is just a way of animation, like comic is a way of depiction. And I would be anxious to see it.Now that I know this film WILL have acting, not just computer driven pixels, I am even more looking forward to it.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2013-01-31T17:59:22-06:00

I'm worried about the live action things as well, but I would remind those that are comparing this to FF-AC that that movie was basically one long action cinema, it was obviously made by the people that make their CG action sequences and therefore had almost ZERO plot, dialogue, character development, etc. I'm not saying I didn't like, it was cool for what it was, but it was not a proper movie. I would hate to see Blizz do the same thing with the WOW movie....

Um...what? Advent Children is part of the steadily growing Final Fantasy VII continuum universe;it was meant to show people what happened between the end of 7 and Dirge of Cerberus. Also, AC was made by Squareenix actual movie group, not the game people....you know, the same people who made Spirits Within.

Except it didn't.

Even after seeing it over a dozen times, I still can't quite make heads or tails of the plot WHATSOEVER, and since pretty much 80% of the main cast of the original game only shows up for a tiny cameo with at best 2 lines of dialog (short and incomplete list: Rex XIII, Cid, Yuffie, Vincent, Cait Sith, and aplenty of more), and it focuses on new characters that we don't know where the hell they came from (such as Denzel) it doesn't really helps much to understand anything. Its just a confusing mess.

The Complete Edition even retconed several parts and rewrote others. Making it even more confusing.

I'm not an FF7 Hater (I simply love VI and X more) but that movie was only enjoyable due to the AWESOME fight scenes. In fact, any time I see it these days I just fast-forward all the nonsensical dialog, and all the BORING character interactions, and just skip to the real meat of it. The fight scenes.

so.......... its like transformers, where the only good bits of the movie are when the autobots and decepticons actually fight.

/shrug I love the movie; and actually Rank, Complete filled in all of the missing plot points that weren't there the first time, such as the side story of just why Denzel was important to Cloud, Tifa and Marlena. It's fine if you don't like it, but the story does explain quite a bit about who the Trio are, what the Stigma is about, and all the rest heh.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2013-01-31T18:06:18-06:00

Videogame movies have ALWAYS sucked.

Silent Hill, Resident Evil

Like to add some titles to broaden your knowledge, I would, young padawan, yes, mmmm.

Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, Hitman, Max Payne and Prince of Persia could be PoS, but they were somewhat (or) highly profitable. Whether you believe it or not, there are many people who enjoyed them.

I had forgotten about the Hitman movie. Every other one you mentioned I already mentioned as well.

Even if they're profitable, that doesn't make them good movies. The Last Airbender was profitable, even though more than a movie, its a living breathing insult to every fan of the Avatar cartoon.

And I didn't implied they were universally panned, in fact, the original Street Fighter movie, while a bad movie, its still a hilarious movie to watch, to the point that its firmly in the "so bad its good" territory. I'm sure each of these films will have some people who enjoyed them, but they were for the most part, universally panned by critics, AND fans of the franchises they were based on.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2013-01-31T18:11:49-06:00

./shrug I love the movie

Just like my above post, I never claimed it was universally panned, just that it wasn't a smash hit, there were just as many who weren't satisfied with it, as there were those who liked it.

Personally, I like it for the fight scenes, but I didn't really got, or enjoyed the plot.

and actually Rank, Complete filled in all of the missing plot points that weren't there the first time, such as the side story of just why Denzel was important to Cloud, Tifa and Marlena.

I'm still upset that it retconned the final fight between cloud and sephirot >_> I'm not gonna forgive that so easily. First time: Cloud divides his sword into 6 replicas, and slashes the crap out of sephirot. Second Time on the Complete edition: Sephirot blocks it all and impales him repeatedly.

LAME! (And totally unnecesary to boot)

It's fine if you don't like it, but the story does explain quite a bit about who the Trio are, what the Stigma is about, and all the rest heh.

Meh, not to me it didn't. It reminded me a lot of Chrono Cross. Some people got its incredibly confusing and messed up plot, and some dind't. I'm part of those that did not. Mileages may vary of course. As with everything.

Comment by Adamsm

on 2013-01-31T18:15:59-06:00

First time: Cloud divides his sword into 6 replicas, and slashes the crap out of sephirot. Second Time on the Complete edition: Sephirot blocks it all and impales him repeatedly.

Um...what? The fight still ends the same with Omnislash V5; it's when Cloud tries to use the original Omnislash that Sephiroth just destroys him....just to show that using the same old tired moves wouldn't work this time around.

The actual fight with Kadaj and Sephiroth is 5 minutes longer in Complete then it is in the original movie.

Comment by taggme

on 2013-01-31T18:29:56-06:00

as long as it isnt like Avatar: the last airbender or Dragon ball Z.... xD

(in the case of Avatar... changing all the characters names because of them not being 'correct' despite being how it is pronounced in every episode.)

and DBZ... /deepsigh

If they did the 'almost live action only not' that was featured in movies like Beowulf... <3 as for actual live action... time will tell

Comment by kimoy

on 2013-01-31T19:09:46-06:00

nice will watch this on theater soon to support not just DL from torrent ^_^

Comment by termonder

on 2013-01-31T19:24:41-06:00

I would love to see an amazing Warcraft movie but if they do amazing with the first they will probably try to make a second one. That is what I'm afraid of.

Comment by potatoe

on 2013-01-31T19:47:31-06:00

If a quarter of the subscriber base (3,000,000 players) sees it at $10 per ticket, it will make a 3rd of its budget back.

The $100,000,000 budget is about half a month (17 days) of subscription feeds given the 12,000,000 subscriber count @ $15/month.Or 1.4 days of revenue per month sent to finance the movie.

If by some miracle all 12,000,000 subscribers see the movie with their friends/families (maybe 1.0-2.0 people per subscriber), box office receipts would be $120,000,000 to $240,000,000.

Modestly, I would assume they will not lose money on this deal.

Even if they lose a small amount, it could be considered part of the advertising budget.